The present invention relates to transaction cards and in particular to a layered/distributed environment which provides distributed services for use of a transaction card, such as a smart card, on board a ship when shipboard communications with a centralized host system are not available.
In many chip card (also known as integrated circuit chip cards or smart cards) environments today, the chip card has specific services and the like that are incorporated onto the card and that interact with a system to perform some service with the system. These are on-line transactions that require a centralized host to perform, for example, authentication or verification services and to perform and complete the actual service transaction.
In a situation such as shipboard use of a chip card, for example, on board a military vessel, shipboard communications may not necessarily be continuous, and there may be times when it is not possible to make a connection between the chip card and various land-based centralized or back-end systems because of an interruption, such as a communications blackout. Therefore, there is a need for a system which provides an environment in which a chip card can operate both on land and on board a ship, even during periods when shipboard communications are not available.
It is a feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a layered/distributed environment for transaction card services on board ships in periods of isolation and which, as a result, provides continuous service in both shipboard and land-based environments.
To achieve the stated and other features, advantages and objects, an embodiment of the present invention makes use, for example, of computer hardware and software to provide a method and system for managing transaction card data that affords complete services for use of a transaction card, such as a smart card, on board a ship when communication between the ship and a centralized host system is unavailable. An embodiment of the present invention utilizes, for example, a layered approach to migrate aspects of a centralized land-based system, such as card issuance, card management, and issuer host authentication to a shipboard environment.
An embodiment of the present invention introduces, for example, an on board issuance system, a distributed card management system, and a local monitoring and administration system, which replicate certain functionality that is available within the centralized environment to the shipboard environment. The land-based card management system holds a snapshot, for example, of all transaction cards issued within the system, as well as profile information for the transaction cardholders. For example, data representing information about a particular transaction cardholder and the cardholder""s transaction card is centrally stored in the central system database.
In an embodiment of the present invention, when the ship leaves port, a snapshot of the central system database, which provides a profile of all personnel on board the ship is hosted on a shipboard based system. An instance of the centrally stored data, for example, for the particular transaction cardholder is taken on board the ship and stored in the distributed card management system database. The cardholder""s transaction card is tracked by the on board system and, for example, tracking data representing current transaction information for the cardholder""s transaction card is also stored in the distributed card management system.
In an embodiment of the present invention, when shipboard communication is available with the land-based central system from time-to-time, a synchronization process allows for updates to be made both from the shipboard based distributed card management system back to the central system and from the central system to the distributed card management system. Thus, the land-based centrally stored data and the data stored in the shipboard based distributed card management system database are periodically synchronized with one another, so that the most current possible data is available to both systems.
The land-based centrally stored data for an embodiment of the present invention includes, for example, specific information about the transaction cardholder, such as profile information about the cardholder, and general information about one or more transaction card applications and services for the cardholder""s transaction card. This data is centrally stored, for example, in connection with initializing and personalizing the cardholder""s transaction card by the land-based card issuance system.
The land-based centrally stored data for an embodiment of the present invention also includes, for example, data representing information about one or more transactions, such as a load transaction or a purchase transaction, with the cardholder""s transaction card at a card accepting device, such as a point of sale terminal, a telephone device, an automatic teller machine, a telephone-based home loading device, or a commercial load kiosk. The instance of the centrally stored data that is taken on board the ship and stored in the distributed card management system database represents a snapshot of the centrally stored data and includes, for example, a profile of all the individual cardholders on board the ship.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the data that represents on board tracking information, such as current transaction information, that is also stored in the shipboard based distributed card management system database includes, for example, data representing information about one or more shipboard transactions, such as a load transaction or a purchase transaction, with the cardholder""s transaction card at a card accepting device, such as a point of sale terminal, a telephone device, an automatic teller machine, a telephone loading automatic teller machine, or a commercial load kiosk.
In an embodiment of the present invention, communication is periodically established between the shipboard distributed card management system database and the land-based central system database to synchronize and update the data stored in the respective databases. This periodic communication can be established over a wireless communication device, such as a satellite communication system, a radio frequency device, or any other suitable wireless device. Alternatively, the periodic communication can be established over a wire line communication device, for example, when the ship is in port, such as a wire or cable communication device.
These and other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become more apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention.